fruit. cornell guide to growing fruit at home

Cornell Guide to Growing Fruit at Home Cooperative Extension 1Before You Begin 14 Tree Fruits 43 Grapes 54 Strawberries 65 Brambles 77 Blueberries 84 Currants and Gooseberries 90 Elderberries 92 Hardy Kiwifruit 95 More Minor Fruits 103 For More Information USDA Hardiness Zones Acknowledgments The following specialists in the Department of Horticulture, Cornell University, con- tributed to the development of this publication: Marcia Eames-Sheavly, Marvin Pritts, Craig Cramer, Lori Bushway, Ian Merwin, and Richard Reisinger. Steven McKay, a commercial fruit specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension in the Hudson Valley, also shared his expertise. Recipe for training young trees (page 28) adapted from materials by Terence Robinson and Steve Hoying. Average Minimum Zone Temperature Range 3a -40 to -35F -37 to -40C 3b -35 to -30F -34 to -37C 4a -30 to -25F -32 to -34C 4b -25 to -20F -29 to -32C 5a -20 to -15F -26 to -29C 5b -15 to -10F -23 to -26C 6a -10 to -5F -21 to -23C 6b -5 to 0F -18 to -21C 7a 0 to 5F -15 to -18C Average Frost-Free Growing Season Average Last Spring Frost Before April 10 April 10–20 April 20–30 April 30–May 10 May 10–May 20 May 20–May 30 After May 30 Fewer than 103 days 103–123 days 123–143 days 143–163 days 163–183 days 183–203 days More than 203 days 1 Before You Begin Keys for Success Table 1: Approximate nutrient composition (per 100 g) of various fruits Calories Vitamin C Sodium Calcium Phosphorus Potassium Iron Magnesium Zinc Fruit (kcal) (mg) (mg) (mg) (mg) (mg) (mg) (mg) (mg) Apple 55.4 12.0 3.0 7.1 12.0 144 0.48 6.4 0.12 Banana 49.4 12.0 1.0 8.7 28.0 393 0.55 36.0 0.22 Blueberry 62.4 22.0 1.0 10.0 9.1 65 0.74 2.4 0.10 Cherry 60.2 12.0 2.0 8.0 7.0 114 — 8.0 — Currant 45.0 36.0 1.4 29.0 27.0 238 0.91 13.0 0.20 Elderberry 46.4 18.0 0.5 35.0 57.0 305 — — — Orange 53.8 50.0 1.4 42.0 23.0 177 0.40 14.0 0.10 Peach 46.0 9.5 1.3 7.8 23.0 205 0.48 9.2 0.02 Pear 55.7 4.6 2.1 10.0 15.0 126 0.26 7.8 0.23 Raspberry 40.2 25.5 1.3 40.0 44.0 170 1.00 30.0 — Strawberry 36.9 64.0 2.5 26.0 29.0 147 0.96 15.0 0.12 Plan ahead. Study this publication, nursery catalogs, and other sources of information and develop a thought- ful plan before you prepare soil or order plants. Match plants to your site. Most fruit plants need full sun, well- drained soil, and good air circulation. Some have more specific needs. To prevent prob- lems, make sure your plants and your site are a good match before you start soil prepara- tion. Growing fruit at home can be fun and provide your family with fresh, flavor- ful, and nutritious food. The benefits are many: •You can grow large amounts of fruit in a relatively small area. •Fruits are a good source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and fiber (see Table 1). •If you carefully choose the kinds and cultivars (varieties) of a fruit before you plant, you can harvest dessert-quality fruit from early summer through the fall. •As an added bonus, the fruits you grow will taste much better than the fruits you find in the grocery store. Before you begin, you need to invest considerable effort into site selection, soil preparation, and planting plans. Before you order plants, you also need to learn about their pollination needs, their winter hardiness, and how sus- ceptible they are to pests. Some fruits are easier to grow than others. Strawberries aren’t much harder to grow than most annual garden crops and bear fruit quickly. Most tree fruits, on the other hand, require a large commitment to pruning, pest man- agement, and care, and they won’t bear fruit right away. Make sure you are ready to devote the time to your planting before you start. 2 The success of your home fruit planting will be determined largely by •how susceptible your site is to frost. •whether your site receives adequate sun. •whether your site has well-drained soil at least 8 inches deep. •whether you choose plants that are adapted to your site and are winter hardy. •your ability to prevent damage from diseases, insects, weeds, and wildlife. •your ability to use good cultural practices, including providing ad- equate water. •your ability to do what is required in a timely manner. Site Selection and Soil Preparation Fruit plants are most productive if you carefully match them with the proper planting site. Very few sites are naturally ideal. To succeed, you may have to overcome some combination of weeds, diseases, pests, poor drainage, low soil organic matter, and poor soil fertility. Each of these can severely reduce the size of your harvest and the health of your plants. So it’s best to take care of them before planting. Once plants are in the ground, it is very difficult to reduce soil pest populations or correct nutrient deficiencies. The most important year for production is the one before planting when you modify the site to take care of these problems. This is very important, especially if you want to use a low-spray/no-spray approach to pest control. A previously cultivated site is often preferable to a new site because you usually do not have to work the soil and perennial weeds are often already under control. But you should not plant strawberries or raspberries where crops that are susceptible to verticillium wilt have been grown (these in- clude potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers). If you must plant straw- berries or raspberries following these crops (or following strawberries or raspberries), choose cultivars resistant to verticillium wilt. While gooseberries and currants perform adequately in partial shade, other fruits require direct sun for at least six hours a day, preferably more. All fruits require well-drained soil with good water-holding capacity. Although a commercial fruit grower may use tiling or grading and leveling to improve drainage, these methods are not usually affordable for home gardeners. For best results, simply choose a well-drained site or plant on raised beds. To reduce weed pressure, to increase soil organic matter, and to improve soil structure and drainage, grow a cover crop before planting fruit. Plant rye or wheat in late summer or early fall as an overwintering cover crop Solve site-related problems the year before planting. 3 Keys for Success before a spring fruit planting. Oats planted at the same time will grow in the fall and then die over the winter, leaving a dead mulch on top of the soil. For additional soil improvement, plant buckwheat as a summer cover crop be- fore establishing the winter cover crop. Growing marigolds, Sudangrass, or certain mustards (oilseed rape) for a year or two before planting fruit can help control certain parasitic nematodes, which are occasionally a problem in certain soils. Weeds are extremely difficult to control once a planting is established, so eliminating most weeds before you plant is an important first step. Before planting cover crops, kill existing vegetation and eliminate perennial weeds such as dandelions and quackgrass. You can do this by applying a postemergent broad-spectrum herbicide that leaves no residue in the soil, by covering the area with black plastic for a year before planting, or by culti- vating the site regularly throughout the year before planting. Because it’s difficult to correct nutrient deficiencies and adjust soil pH after you’ve planted, it is critical to test your soil before planting to see if you need to add lime and nutrients. Collect subsamples from several locations to pro- vide a representative sample of the site. (Contact your county Cornell Coop- erative Extension office for more information, or see www.cce.cornell.edu/ local_offices.cfm.) The soil test will report the pH (relative acidity or alkalin- ity of the soil), the cation exchange capacity (a measure of the resistance of the soil to changes in pH), and the amounts of various nutrients present. Fruit trees, grapes, strawberries, brambles (blackberries and raspberries), currants, and gooseberries grow best when the soil pH is between 6.0 and 6.5. If your soil tests below this range, add lime to raise the pH as recom- mended on your soil test report. Blueberries require acid soil with a pH of about 4.5. You can apply sulfur to lower the pH before planting. On some soils it may be too difficult to lower the pH enough to grow blueberries, especially soils with a natural pH of 7.0 or higher. Because it takes about a year for sulfur or lime to affect soil pH, you need to apply them the year before planting. Acidifying the soil with aluminum sul- fate is not recommended because it requires six times more chemical than acidification with sulfur does. In addition, aluminum sulfate applications are expensive and can contaminate the soil with excess aluminum. Phosphorus is important for root growth and flower bud formation, but it does not move easily through the soil. For this reason, incorporate fertilizer based on your soil test recommendations into the top 8 inches of soil before planting. Plants need potassium to activate enzymes, move sugars into the fruit, open stomates, and assist in nitrogen uptake. The amount of potassium required by fruit plants depends on the soil type. It is important to incorporate phos- Prepare the soil. The most important year in the life of your fruit plants is the year before you plant them. Test the soil and begin preparing it by adding organic matter and planting cover crops about a year before you plan to establish your planting. This is particularly important if you need to adjust soil pH. Start small. Consider how much time you have to care for your planting. You will prob- ably get more fruit— and satisfaction—from a small, well-tended planting than you will from a large, neglected one. What’s available lo- cally? If you already have a good local source of a particular fruit, do you really want to grow more? You might want to focus your planting on hard- to-get species or variet- ies with special traits (such as good flavor, early harvest, disease resistance) that you can’t find locally. 4 phorus and potassium before planting because severe deficiencies cannot be corrected later. A soil test also will include results for magnesium, which is necessary for chlorophyll formation, and calcium, which is essential for fruit development, pollen germination, and membrane integrity. Because lime contains vary- ing amounts of magnesium and calcium, choose a type of lime that will adjust calcium or magnesium levels as well as raise pH. If calcium is low, use calcitic lime. If magnesium is low, use dolomitic lime. Levels of other nutrients needed by fruit crops are best indicated by a leaf analysis during the first growing season. (For more information about leaf analysis testing, contact the Cornell Nutrient and Elemental Analysis Labo- ratory, telephone: (607) 255-1785, web site: www.hort.cornell.edu/depart- ment/facilities/icp.) A good strategy is to test the soil and carefully prepare and fertilize the soil at least a year before establishment. Then retest the soil to make sure that soil nutrient levels are adequate before planting. Once you’ve established the planting, have the soil tested every three or four years. If you see signs of nutrient deficiency that are not showing up in your soil test, have a leaf tissue analysis done. Climate Concerns Minimum winter temperatures at your site largely determine which fruit cultivars you can grow successfully. In addition to the genetics of the culti- var (including both the tree and the rootstock in the case of fruit trees), many other factors affect whether or not your trees or small fruits will survive over the winter. If your soil is poorly drained, your plants are less likely to make it to the spring. Likewise, other stresses will reduce the plants’ hardiness, including a heavy crop the previous season, too much or too little nitrogen or other nutritional problems, and defoliation or other pest damage. Predicting winter hardiness is an inexact science, but a good place to start is by determining which USDA Hardiness Zone you live in (see Hardiness Zones map on the inside cover). The USDA Hardiness Zones are deter- mined by the average low temperature in winter. Keep in mind that these are averages, and in extreme years the temperatures may get even colder. Compare your expected low temperatures with the information below. Most cultivars of apple and pear trees can withstand winter lows of –25 de- grees F (USDA Hardiness Zone 4b). Sour cherries, plums, and blueberries suffer winter injury when the mini- mum temperature is lower than –20 degrees F, so they are not reliably hardy beyond Zone 5a. Brambles will survive these temperatures but may not bear fruit the following season. Poorly drained soil reduces winter survival. 5 The wood of sweet cherries and peaches can sustain damage when tempera- tures approach –20 degrees F, and the flower buds of peach trees are usu- ally killed when temperatures reach –15 degrees F. Sweet cherries are usu- ally successful only in Zones 5 and warmer, and peaches in Zones 6 and warmer. During cold winters with little snow cover, unmulched strawberry plants often sustain winter injury. Although some grape cultivars such as Concord can withstand temperatures around –20 degrees F, vinifera-type grapevines survive weather this cold only if they are buried for the winter. Keep in mind that winter hardiness is just one factor in determining whether a particular fruit cultivar will perform well on your site. Your location may not have extremely low winter temperatures, but if it’s prone to late spring frosts, freezing temperatures may kill blossoms on early-flowering cultivars (see the Average Last Spring Frost map on the inside front cover). Expect losses due to flower damage on many types of fruit where frost occurs fre- quently after May 10. Temperatures in a given region can vary greatly depending on elevation, exposure, and proximity to large bodies of water. Cold air settles into low areas, and even during periods of a hard freeze, temperatures at the middle or top of a slope can be several degrees warmer than at the bottom. If at all possible, avoid planting fruit in these low-lying frost pockets. The length of your growing season is also important, as some cultivars re- quire a long frost-free period to ripen fruit (see Average Frost-Free Growing Season map on the inside front cover). Some also require a minimum num- ber of “growing degree days” (GDDs), essentially a measure of how much warm weather you have at your site. Carefully check hardiness information in nursery catalogs before ordering plants to make sure that they are winter hardy in your area and are well matched to the length of your growing season. If your location is prone to late spring frosts, look for late-flowering varieties. The fruits of fall-bearing raspberries and early-blooming grapes are more likely to ripen in areas that have early fall frosts. Winter Protection While it’s important to select cultivars that are hardy for your area, other stresses, such as insect and disease damage, can weaken plants and make them more susceptible to winter injury. Taking care of your trees throughout the year can minimize stress and im- prove their chances of surviving over the winter. One of the most important factors influencing cold hardiness is the nutrient status of your plants. If plants are deficient in one or more nutrients, winter injury is likely to occur. Are you ready for commitment? Tree fruits, in particu- lar, require a lot of care and don’t come into full production for several years. Strawber- ries, on the other hand, aren’t much more difficult to grow than most garden crops. Most of the other small fruits fall somewhere in between but still require regular pruning and care and, in some cases, trellising. If deer or other wildlife are abundant, plantings may require fencing or other protection. Make sure you are ready for the commitment before you jump in. Keys for Success 6 Yet if plants have too much nitrogen in their tissues, they do not “harden” properly. Hardening is a physiological process that cold-climate plants go through, which includes storing carbohydrates and proteins in ways that allow them to survive cold weather. For most fruit plantings, nitrogen should be applied only in the spring (straw- berries are an exception). Late applications of nitrogen fertilizer can cause a late-season flush of growth and delay hardening, increasing the risk of win- ter injury. To help plants harden off, do not water them after mid-September unless there is a severe drought. Many growers allow weeds to grow late in the season to help remove water and excess nitrogen from the soil and thereby help plants harden properly. Others plant a cover crop. Mulch applications help prevent soil heaving in new plantings. Plants store energy collected from the sun through photosynthesis as carbo- hydrates. Those entering winter with few carbohydrates stored in their roots and buds are likely to grow poorly in the spring or be injured by cold tem- peratures. Proper pruning at the right time allows plants to maximize sun exposure and improve carbohydrate storage. Pruning too late in the season may cause a flush of growth and reduce a plant’s hardiness. Mulching strawberries helps prevent significant winter injury, but mulch- ing too early can be as detrimental as not mulching at all. Early mulching shades the leaves from sunlight and prevents the plant from accumulating sufficient carbohydrates. Strawberry plants should not be mulched until the temperature falls below 20 degrees F for three nights in any one week, usu- ally near Thanksgiving in much of New York State. It is best to mulch im- mediately before the first heavy snow and remove straw mulch before the end of March. Designing a Planting While growing fruit at home can be rewarding, it will cost time and money. To reduce these costs, carefully consider the design of your planting, in- cluding arrangement, spacing, cultivar selection, number of plants, and aesthetics. One common mistake is to put the plants too close together. Allow ample room for growth so you can prune and perform other tasks. Another common error is to put in more plants than you need. A small planting that receives proper care will yield more good-quality fruit than a larger planting that is neglected. Use Table 2 to help draw up a planting design that will meet family and space requirements. Many fruit plants are aesthetically pleasing and are good for “edible land- scaping.” But if production and ease of management are your primary goals, maintaining a home fruit planting will be easiest if you devote separate A small, well- tended planting will yield more high-quality fruit than a larger, neglected one. [...]... 75 late July through Oct late July through Oct late July through Oct late July through Oct mid-July to early Aug early to mid-July mid- to late July early Aug to early Sept late July to mid-Sept mid-Aug to Oct mid-Aug to Oct late July to mid-Sept High High High High High High Low High High Moderate Moderate Moderate Grapes American type Vinifera type 8 8 9 9 3 3 20 10 early Sept to Oct early Sept to. .. tree fruits grown in New York that are self-fruitful When growing other tree fruits discussed in this publication, you need to plant at least two different cultivars to get good pollination and fruit set (see “Pollination and Fruit Set,” page 8) Look in nursery catalogs for information about which cultivars make good “pollenizers.” Cultivars also need to be winter hardy in your area For more information,... cultivated varieties) to choose from! Deciding what to plant is one of the most enjoyable tasks of growing fruit trees But it also can be frustrating for those who are new to growing fruit Fortunately, there are many tried-and-true cultivars to consider (see Table 3 and “Sure-Fire Winners,” pages 16 and 15, respectively) Lengthy test periods have proven the value of many newer fruit tree cultivars that... early to prevent birds from establishing a feeding pattern A combination of techniques is usually most effective For more information, see these Cornell Cooperative Extension publications: • Wildlife Damage Management in Fruit Orchards (1994) • Managing White-Tailed Deer in Suburban Environments: A Technical Guide (2000) For ordering information, see: “Related Cornell Cooperative Extension Publications,”... mind that different cultivars and different rootstocks may require or respond differently to various pruning strategies (see Figure 8) For additional information on pruning and training, refer to the Cornell Cooperative Extension publications Training and Pruning Apple Trees and Cultural Practices for Commercial Vineyards For ordering information, see “Related Cornell Cooperative Extension Publications,”... rainy weather during bloom • disease • poor plant nutrition • inadequate pollination • lack of a compatible cultivar for cross-pollination in species that are not “self-fruitful.” Pollination and subsequent seed development are prerequisites for fruit set With most fruits, flowers that appear in early spring begin as buds that form in the axils of the leaves during the previous year Flowers of many fruits... Vinifera type 8 8 9 9 3 3 20 10 early Sept to Oct early Sept to Oct Moderate High 10 10 8 10 10 8 4 3–5 2 3–6 2–4 2–4 2–4 2 2 1 2–3 3–10 6–8 4–8 2–4 1–2 1–3 1 late July to Aug late July to Sept July Aug to Sept July to Aug July or Sept June to early July June through Oct Moderate Low Low Low Moderate Moderate Moderate High Small fruits Blackberry 2 Blueberry 4–5 Currant 4 Elderberry 6 Gooseberry 4 Raspberry... is your first attempt at growing fruit, consider planting on a small scale to get a realistic idea of the demands 13 Tree Fruits Keys for Success Choose cultivars that are hardy in your area Dwarf cultivars bear fruit earlier than standard trees and are easier to manage in home plantings Except for peaches (which are self-fruitful), plant at least two different cultivars for good pollination Start with... raptors and owls can encourage them to stay and hunt Providing roosting boxes for bats can encourage them to hunt insects at dusk 12 Money and Time Demands Home fruit growers may find it more difficult and expensive to grow highquality tree fruit than small -fruit plants, such as strawberries, grapes, blueberries, and brambles One reason for this is that many different pests and diseases plague tree fruits... that produces the fruit Sure-Fire Winners These apple cultivars are easy to prune and set fruit most every year (You’ll still need to tend to pest management.) • Jonamac • Sansa • Liberty • Empire • Golden Delicious • GoldRush Fruit trees grown on dwarfing rootstock bear fruit sooner and are easier Mature tree size depends on the vigor of the rootstock, the scion cultivar (the cultivar grafted onto . to -20F -29 to -32C 5a -20 to -15F -26 to -29C 5b -15 to -10F -23 to -26C 6a -10 to -5F -21 to -23C 6b -5 to 0F -18 to -21C 7a 0 to 5F -15 to -18C Average Frost-Free Growing Season Average Last. fruits grown in New York that are self-fruitful. When growing other tree fruits discussed in this publication, you need to plant at least two different cultivars to get good pollination and fruit. cultivated varieties) to choose from! Deciding what to plant is one of the most enjoyable tasks of growing fruit trees. But it also can be frustrating for those who are new to growing fruit. Fortunately,